Editorial: Treasured Trenton City Museum at Ellarslie moves ahead to find a director

Michael Mancuso/The Times of TrentonA glass vase is examined at Antiques Appraisal Day held at Ellarslie Mansion in Cadwalader Park at the Trenton City Museum, Feb.19, 2012.

In a city fraught with so many problems and financial worries, it’s not surprising that an institution such as the Trenton City Museum at Ellarslie Mansion would be far down on the list of funding priorities.

Not surprising, but also not right.

As part of citywide staffing cuts, Brian Hill, longtime museum director, was laid off in September 2011.

That prompted the Brooklyn Museum to take back a century-old ceramic vase made in Trenton that had been on loan to Ellarslie. Without a full-time director at Ellarslie, the Brooklyn Museum was not confident that the rare piece would be safe in Trenton’s keeping.

Clearly diminished without a professional director, the Trenton museum was entrusted to the care of an intern. That plan was advanced by Mayor Tony Mack’s administration despite the city’s long-standing pledge to staff the museum.

An agreement between the city, which owns Ellarslie, and the Trenton Museum Society, which owns the collection, calls for Trenton to staff the facility with a qualified, full-time director in exchange for being able to display the museum society’s collection.

The agreement also spells out a procedure for resolving grievances. A museum without a director presumably would qualify as an issue in need of resolution.

Despite several attempts to launch that procedure, museum society officials have not been able to meet directly with the mayor. City officials, however, suggested the museum society go ahead and hire a director on its own.

That’s just what it did.

“It’s been a long time and nothing’s happened, and we decided we needed to get back in business,” Trenton Museum Society President Robert Cunningham told The Times’ Matt Fair last week.

As Fair reported, Robert Sands has taken over as interim part-time director at Ellarslie, and the museum society will start soliciting candidates to fill the post permanently.

Funding for the permanent position still has not been worked out. In the meantime, however, programming will resume within the elegant mansion in Cadwalader Park — including the annual Trenton Artists Workshop Association Juried Exhibition in the summer.

We urge those in the Trenton region to support the museum and its mission of preserving those touchstones of the city’s industry and artistic expression, as well as bringing high-quality art and education programs to the city.

With “the dry spell over,” as Cunningham says, the uniquely Trenton collection of fine art, decorative art and historical artifacts are secure in their Ellarslie home.